Caption: Limnias melicerta rotifer whirling, captured with a microscope. Sample taken from a school pond. Limnias inhabits freshwater habitats where it builds its housing on submerse water plants. Limnias is a sessile rotifer, only the juvenile animals can be found in the plankton. This short video clip shows how the name 'wheel animalcules' came to the rotifers: The corona is divided into two nearly circular lobes. When Limnias is whirling, the beating cilia of the corona gives the impression of two moving toothed wheels. But in contrast to the gear wheels with opposite rotation, the rotation of the beating cilia of the of the two lobes is the same. Limnias melicerta is about 800 to 1000 m in length, building brownish, transparent tubes, in which it can retract when the animal is disturbed. Microscopic contrast method : differential interference contrast. Captured field width : 0,5mm.